March 2014, What’s New

Aerohive
Networks
has released
the Aerohive
Mobility Suite,
a cloud-enabled mobile device management
solution. The Mobility Suite includes three
main components: the Client Management
application, the ID Manager application,
and integration with mobile device
management software partners AirWatch
and JAMF Software. The Mobility Suite
simplifies enterprise networking and
personalizes mobility for enterprises and IT
staff by extending visibility and control over
mobile devices to the edge of the network.

Alma offers
an affordable
alternative
to traditional
student
information
and learning
management systems by consolidating
school, classroom, and information
management into one secure, cloud-based
system. Alma’s core services—including
over 100 SIS/LMS features, gradebooks
and parent/student portals—are available
for free. Alma offers administrative features
as well as productivity tools, to help
administrators and teachers collaborate.

Channel One,
LLC, has
announced a
standards-based
subscription
offering to
develop nonfiction literacy and critical
thinking skills for students in grades 3-5
and 6-8. Channel One News’ curriculum
is a three-part instructional routine
that uses nonfiction video and text as a
comprehensive, multi-disciplinary teaching
resource. These student-centered activities
integrate English language arts with core
subject areas, like science, geography,
and college and career readiness, and are
supplemented with vocabulary, discussion
questions, quiz questions, and information
about the standards that align to the
activities.

Florida
Virtual School
(FLVS) has
launched
Anatomy &
Physiology,
a new mobile-ready science course.
Students explore the human body through
the eyes of field experts and clinicians,
learning new terminology and the effects
of diseases on the body. Students can
access all course materials, interactivities,
and assessments from their tablets or
smartphones. The two-segment course
includes multimedia videos, audiovisual
presentations, interactive case studies,
and virtual labs.

Goalbook has
added English
Language
Learner (ELL) instructional resources
to its repository of PK-12 academic and
social emotional resources. Goalbook’s
Toolkit supports educators in the design
of instructional objectives aligned to
academic standards, and the new content
is differentiated according to language
development level, such as WIDA and the
California ELD Standards.

Shmoop’s Math
Shack has been
upgraded to
enable teachers
to assign quizzes
with infinite reps
and drills. The library contains over 200
topics and concepts, to prepare students for
the SAT and ACT. Teachers can schedule
a time for individual students to complete
personalized quizzes that focus on problem
areas, or assign new quizzes with a mix of
hard and warm-up question sets from the
same topic. Once students complete their
Math Shack quizzes, they can submit them
to their teachers immediately.

Net Texts
has compiled
collections of
educational
videos from the
YouTube Education channel and providers
such as the History Channel and PBS.
The videos are organized by author, and
tagged by subject and grade level. The
video collection supports Net Texts’ OER
Textbook Replacement Courses—a series
of open educational resources with readymade
courses for math, science, social
studies, and English for grades 6-12.

Odysseyware
has added
two new
Career
and Technical Education courses to
its portfolio: Introduction to STEM,
and Introduction to Agriculture, Food,
and Natural Resources. Every course is
designed by educators to help students
acquire core academic skills. Additionally,
the Odyssey student interface has been
redesigned and features a new “notes”
tool for enhanced student-teacher
communication, day-planning functions to
boost productivity, and more flexibility to
suit different learning styles. It’s designed
for the 21st-century classroom, with
mobile usage in mind.

Performance
Matters has
released its
next generation
assessment platform, PM UNIFY. The
social platform lets educators develop
and administer assessments from any
location. UNIFY provides the capacity
to assess students in all course areas, not
just those tested by states. The platform’s
modular technology supports the end-to-end
process of assessment development,
including blueprinting, item authoring
and review, test generation, and test
administration.

PowerUp WHAT
WORKS, developed
by the Center
for Technology
Implementation
at the American
Institutes for
Research, is a free professional learning
Web site that offers teachers, PD
facilitators, and administrators resources
for helping students—especially those
with disabilities—meet the Common Core
State Standards. The focus is on linking
evidence-based practices and technology in
English language arts and math.

PREY has
released Device-
Wipe for Android, offering Prey Pro users
the ability to wipe all data from missing or
stolen devices. Device Wipe identifies and
protects content on devices, such as student
email and pictures, student or teacher
information records, or district network
access.

Red Hat, Inc.
has announced
updates to Red
Hat Academy,
the company’s open source education
program that offers turnkey curriculum
materials for educational programs in
global secondary and higher education
institutions. Red Hat Academy now
includes an organized OpenStack offering,
including a curriculum for instructors,
textbooks, and labs. The upgrade also
includes new tests and quizzes with
performance tracking, and a new skills
application lab system with self-checking
performance feedback.

The
Schoology
learning
management
system now
offers the
ability to measure student mastery of
learning outcomes and standards. This
enhancement to the Enterprise version
of the software allows it to measure and
quantify student learning over time using
any learning object (such as quizzes and
homework) that is aligned to outcomes.
Schoology comes pre-loaded with
state and Common Core standards, but
administrators can add custom learning
outcomes.

Scorant has released its Class Manager
course management software for K-12.
Combining analytics with an easy-to-use
application and mobile client, Scorant
offers teachers and students a variety of
capabilities, from course creation and
syllabus management to attendance
tracking. Students can see their current
and past performance records, simulate
major changes, and participate in all class
activities. Scorant offers its solutions through
traditional browsers as well as mobile apps
available for both iOS and Android devices.

Splashtop
has released
Splashtop
Classroom,
enabling teachers
to share their PC
or Mac desktops or applications instantly
with students. Once connected, students
can view, control, and annotate lesson
content from their mobile devices. Features
include a PC or mac streamer, Splashtop
center and a free app so students can join
a session by taking a snap of the QR code.
Initially available for the iPad, Chromebook
and Windows or Mac using a Chrome
browser, Splashtop plans to add support for
iPhone, Android, and more devices.

McGraw-Hill Education has launched
SRA Number Worlds, an intensive PreK-8,
CCSS-aligned math intervention program.
Number Worlds helps students learn
critical math
skills through
flexible options
and provides
support for
students with
varying intervention needs. It emphasizes
project-based learning through both print
and digital delivery. The program’s digital
teaching and learning platform offers
interactive games, embedded activities,
videos and animations, and planning tools
to help teachers map out their lessons.

TechSmith
has released
Relay, software that streamlines video
creation and management for educators,
allowing them to click one button to
record, store, and distribute their class
lecture content. Relay hosts the content
for districts and allows students, teachers,
and administrators to set up their own
video libraries to share and collaborate on
schoolwork. The accounts can be accessed
across all mobile devices. Relay shows
teachers how well students comprehend
information through quizzing and analytics
in every video.

Triumph Learning has joined the C2
Collaborative, partnering with the Common
Core Institute (CCI) and the Center for
College & Career Readiness, to provide a
variety of tools and professional services
to support alignment of curriculum,
instruction, and assessment to College &
Career Readiness requirements. Through
this partnership, Triumph Learning
customers can easily access CCI’s resources
and professional development services.

Evanced Solutions has announced a limited-feature
test version of Wandoo Planet, a
software platform that empowers kids to
discover their interests and find relevant
books, music, and other content through
a recommendation engine. Through the
Wandoo Planet interest discovery game,
players find topics and activities that others
have found to be interesting. They then
decide if they love, like, or dislike what they
see. Content related to the child’s interests
are captured in a mystical Wandoo tree that
enables them to watch their interests grow
over time.

Achieve3000 has
released a free app
for the iPad, allowing
students to build literacy skills on their
tablets without the need for an Internet
connection. All offline activity will sync
automatically once an Internet connection
resumes, allowing students to seamlessly
transition across multiple devices. The app
also features embedded audio, providing
additional support for struggling learners
and English language learners. For
students with special needs, the app offers
accessibility features such as VoiceOver,
Speak Select, and Guided Access.

AirWatch has
launched Teacher
Tools to simplify
managing mobile
devices in the
classroom. The iOS application offers
features like All Eyes Up Front, Single
Application Mode, and Clear Passcode,
in an intuitive user interface. AirWatch’s
multi-tenant architecture allows for simple
management across students, classrooms,
schools, and districts. Teachers can
associate each student with the assigned
device and manage devices for different
classes, groups of students, or individuals.

eduClipper, the social
learning platform for
teachers and students
to curate, create, and
share educational
content, is now available as an iPad app.
The app allows users to build personalized
learning portfolios that showcase personal
achievement and academic growth.
Teachers can create and administer
project-based assessments and provide
their students with feedback on their work.

GoClass,
LearningMate Solutions’ cloud-based
teaching and learning application, now lets
users sign into the app using their Google
Accounts. The integration allows instructors
and students, including Google Apps for
Education users, to seamlessly log in to the
application using their Google Accounts.

Vernier has released
Graphical Analysis
for Android. The
app allows students
to wirelessly stream
data from Vernier’s LabQuest 2 and from
Logger Pro to an Android device and then
analyze scientific data. Students can use
the app with existing Vernier sensors to
simultaneously collect and graph data from
multiple sensors. Additionally, students can
graph manually entered data, and access
the same analysis and annotation features
used for sensor-based data collection.

Houghton Mifflin
Harcourt has
teamed up with
Google to deliver
K-12 core curriculum
through Google Play
for Education. Popular
HMH titles such as GO Math!
and Journeys Common Core are the first
available titles. The partnership will also
feature many of HMH’s curriculum-aligned
literature titles. The content is available on
Android tablets, Google Chromebooks, or
online via the Play Books reader.

The K-12 video
learning platform
Mobento has
introduced a new
video player interface, as well as Android
and iOS apps for viewing Mobento’s free
educational videos. Educators and students
ages 12 and up can download the apps to
their devices free of charge.

The latest version of
NetSupport School
classroom management software enables
teachers to collaborate with any mix of
technology. NetSupport Student apps are
now available for Android, Kindle, and iOS
devices. The NetSupport School Student
app for Android now offers thumbnail views
of connected student tablets. Teachers can
remotely launch Web sites on one or more
student tablets and assign student rewards.

SAS has created
an ebook on stellar
evolution, for 10
to 12–year-old
students with visual impairments. Reach
for the Stars: Touch, Look, Listen, Learn
is currently being developed for the iPad
and will be available on the App Store
this summer. SAS is creating the ebook
in partnership with Elena Sabbi, an
astronomer at the Space Telescope Science
Institute. Sabbi is the lead researcher on
the latest Hubble image of 30 Doradus,
nicknamed the Tarantula Nebula.

hardware

Epson (www.epsonbrighterfutures.com) has
introduced the PowerLite
570, 575W, 580, and
585W (pictured) ultra-short
throw projectors, designed for
the connected K-12 classroom.
Offering a Moderator
functionality that allows a
network of up to 50 personal
devices to connect to the projectors, teachers can wirelessly control which personal
devices are displayed, with up to four student screens shown simultaneously. In addition,
the new projectors feature two HDMI ports, one with MHL (Mobile High-Definition
Link) support for connecting multiple digital devices, including mobile phones, tablets,
and other portable devices, for enriched high definition viewing capabilities.

Lenovo (www.lenovo.com) has
announced the ThinkPad
11e series of laptops, designed
for education and ruggedized
for classroom performance.
The devices are available in
two form factors—traditional
laptop or Lenovo’s Yoga
multimode form—and with
the choice of Windows 8 or
Chrome OS.

Trident Case (www.tridentcase.com) has partnered with Today I Can Do
Anything to offer a new line of Today I Can Do Anything-inspired
cases. With several models available for the iPhone 5 &
5s, plus one for the Samsung Galaxy S4, the line offers multiple levels of
protection for a variety of devices. The new TICDA line includes Motivate
Series, Encourage Series, and Inspire Series cases for the iPhone 5 & 5s, as
well as an Inspire Series case for the Samsung Galaxy S4. The Inspire cases
consist of a polycarbonate shell that provides lightweight protection.

TabPilot (www.tabpilot.com) has launched the Breea series
of tablets for wireless broadcasting to classroom projectors.
The 9.7” Breea Freedom HD offers a high-definition screen
and long battery life, as well as 16GB internal storage. The
Android-based tablet is powered by a quad-core processor
and offers 2048 X 1536 resolution. Paired with TabPilot’s
Breea Freedom wireless receiver, teachers can use the
tablet while moving around the classroom to share Web sites,
presentations, videos, or other content with the class. TabPilot also offers
a tablet stand that effectively turns the Breea Freedom HD into a portable,
wireless document camera.

InFocus (www.infocus.com) has released the two-pound, seven-inch LightPro IN1146
mobile light-emitting-diode (LED) projector. It turns on and off instantly, without any warmup
or cool-down time. It’s quick to connect and displays content from laptops, tablets, and
smartphones through a variety of connections, such as HDMI and VGA hookups, USB and
SD card slots, or wirelessly through a USB Wi-Fi adapter. The LightPro IN1146 delivers 800
lumens of brightness and a 10,000:1 contrast ratio that shows detailed images and vivid colors. It
is also rated for up to 30,000 hours of use.

Vernier Software & Technology (www.vernier.com) has launched the Go Wireless
and NODE+ families of wireless sensors. Go Wireless Temp, the first product in
the series, is a rugged, stainless steel temperature sensor that collects temperature data
when used with an iOS device. The new sensor allows students to explore temperature
in the environment and in systems such as fish tanks, greenhouses, thermal mugs, or
heating and cooling devices. The NODE+ wireless sensors allow students to explore
concepts in topics such as Earth science, environmental science, and physical science,
using mobile devices. These sensors are compatible with Graphical Analysis for iPad
and a collection of iOS and Android apps from Variable, Inc.

BenQ American
(www.benq.us) has
introduced the P Series
line of professional
installation projectors.
Consisting of the
PX 9600 and
PW 9500, the
P Series’ XGA and
WXGA models deliver
high brightness of
6,500 and 5,700
lumens, respectively,
as well as crisp 2800:1
contrast ratios.
Equipped with HQV
image processing, the
technology allows
the devices to scale
outputs, enabling the
projectors to cast
full resolutions that
enhance both image
details and overall
picture quality.

Ergotron, Inc. (www.ergotron.com) offers a variety of education-specific mounting, mobility, and device
management solutions. The portfolio includes technology-enabled classroom carts, sit-stand computer
workstations, and charging carts and cabinets. The tablet charging carts for Apple, Android, Chromebook,
and Windows-based tablets offer the ability to secure, charge, and sync up to 48 devices in a compact
form, with smooth gliding casters for easy transport. The Tablet Management Station 16
is a space-saving tower that offers the means to sync and charge up to 16 Apple, Android, and ereader
devices using wired USB connections.

SMART Technologies (www.smarttech.com) has released the SMART flex
centralized computing platform, a combination of hardware and software that
enables control of up to ten interactive displays with only one computer. The
platform works by connecting the flex client hardware to one host PC. Each
SMART flex hardware client is then connected to a SMART interactive display to
allow multiple collaborative learning stations to run from the processing power of a single computer.

ELMO USA (www.elmousa.com) has introduced the
BOX i T-200 HD LED
video projector. The 10.6-
ounce, 150-lumen DLP projector
offers a small footprint of less than
4x6 inches, but produces sharp, bright,
high contrast images as large as 68 inches
diagonally. The BOXi T-200 features a single
HDMI connection for video sources and incorporates a 1-watt mono
speaker as well as a mini-stereo output jack for sending sound through
an audio system, speakers, or headphones. The projector is also
equipped with ELMO’s short-throw lens, allowing it to create the fullsize
picture at a distance of 52 inches from the screen.

Acer (www.acer.com) has released the Aspire S7
Ultrabooks, featuring WQHD IPS displays with
a resolution of 2560 x 1440 in a 16:9
aspect ratio. IPS technology provides
consistent and accurate color from
viewing angles up to 178 degrees.
At less than 12.9 mm, the S7 is the
thinnest in the Ultrabook series.
A dual-torque hinge keeps the
display stable when used for
touch control.

Dell (www.dell.com) has announced the latest release of the Dell KA CE K2000
DeploymentAppliance to further automate, accelerate, and simplify OS and
application migrations. The Dell KACE K2000 v3.6 features advanced multicasting
capabilities and a new task engine that makes it easier to capture and deploy system
images across a range of tablets, laptops, and desktops.

Kensington (www.kensington.com)
has announced 14 new cases that
provide drop and spill protection for
iPad Air and iPad mini tablets. The
new additions join the existing series
of Kensington BlackBelt and
SafeGrip (pictured) cases. The
BlackBelt cases offer military-grade
tablet protection in three degrees to
cover a variety of needs. The SafeGrip
cases are designed to provide a first
line of defense for tablets used by
children in the classroom environment.
SafeGrip cases provide strong,
cushioned protection and are built
from non-toxic materials.

Belkin (www.belkin.com) has introduced two new
products for classroom use: the Portable Stage
(pictured) for tablet and smartphone presentations,
and a new Secure Wired Keyboard for
iPad and Samsung tablets. The Portable Stage allows
teachers to transform a smartphone or tablet into
a document camera. Users can capture live video
and overlay text and labels, or highlight key points
throughout the presentation. The Secure Wired
Keyboard offers a durable, child-friendly structure and
configuration, and eliminates the need for batteries.

Harman’s JBL Professional (www.harman.com) has released the EON 600 series
of portable loudspeakers, delivering studio monitor quality sound in a portable PA
system. The EON615 15-inch two-way loudspeaker features built-in, 1000-watt
power amplification. An iOS and Android supported interface can be paired with the
Bluetooth Smart Ready 4.0 for controlling master volume, adjusting the five-way,
user-definable parametric EQ, and saving and recalling user presets.